


A Warlord's Blood

by Marien



Category: Black Jewels - Anne Bishop
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-06
Updated: 2013-02-06
Packaged: 2017-11-28 09:51:56
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,053
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/673071
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marien/pseuds/Marien
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>First part of a Black Jewels story that focuses on the years before Saetan became a Guardian, and the lives of<br/>his family and friends.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Warlord's Blood

Listen to Silence

Mephis is his firstborn, though not much time separates him from his brother. Still barely out of babyhood, for children of one of the long-lived races.  
He is the more thoughtful of the two boys, quieter, observant; he rarely speaks, but when he does,  
it's worth listening to. He questions everything, including things his elders take entirely for granted.  
Peyton is mischief personified. From the moment he first opens his eyes in the morning, to  
when he finally drops off to sleep hours and hours later, he's like a miniature tornado.  
Saetan quickly learns the knack of shielding bright, shiny(fragile) objects at a second's notice.

The boys are inseparable. Despite normal childish bickering, they stick together.  
Mephis is scolded once by his mother for bloodying an aristo boy's nose, when the other  
child made the mistake of trying to steal one of Peyton's toys. Saetan doesn't  
interfere with the punishment; he does, however, show Mephis how to duck and trip  
up an attacker, the next time he's alone with his sons.

There's a faint ache in his heart when Mephis asks, innocently,  
why his other grandmother--Saetan's mother--never comes to visit.  
He makes some excuse; he can't remember what, later on.  
Mephis, showing a sharp intuition despite his father's attempt to mask old  
hurt, never asks that particular question again. 

They play, fight, explore, every day bringing new things to show their parents. Hekatah  
is a bit less amused than Saetan when Peyton discovers a live(harmless) little lizard  
that has green scales, which the boys compare to some of her favorite jewelry. 

He tries his best to answer their questions honestly. More than once, he has to admit  
that he isn't sure, and he and the boys visit the house's library in search of answers.  
He keeps an extra supply of handkerchiefs with him for these forays. Hekatah and  
her family aren't terribly avid readers; the shelves are dusty. Mephis often has sneezing  
fits if he's there too long.

Saetan tucks them in every night that he's at home, reading them a story.  
He'll sit long after they fall asleep, watching them. Partly it's a father's protective  
instincts, part of it simply taking a moment's peace to thank the Darkness for  
the gift his sons are. 

Peyton asks for a horse for his birthday. After some negotiation, they agree on ponies,  
for both boys. Hekatah makes a face the first time the boys come to dinner smelling  
of hay and horse manure, but since the ponies keep them from demanding quite so much of  
her attention, she accepts it after awhile.

Once she and Saetan know that she's pregnant again, she's even more pleased to have  
something occupying them. Pregnancy is never easy for Blood females. Hekatah wears  
the Red. She's frequently ill while she carries the child, and despises having to ask for  
help with even minor Craft.

Mephis will be old enough for his Birthright Ceremony before long. Possibly by the end of  
his twelfth year. There's no set age; it's when the child is mature enough to begin sensing  
the use of Jeweled power by other individuals. For some reason, those who have the   
potential to wear dark Jewels seem to reach that point sooner than lighter-Jeweled Blood.

Saetan has been waiting for that day. They've grown so quickly...

* * *  
He never has the chance to name his third son, let alone watch him grow from newborn to  
youth,

Mephis and Peyton are his anchor for the next several months. His reason not to slip back into  
the Twisted Kingdom, that place where honor and responsibility are drowned out by a baby's  
voice.

He never lets them see or hear him cry for their brother.

Hekatah, when she returns, never cries at all.

* * *  
The next time he's able to smile, the expression feels odd, despite being genuine.  
Love, and pride, the day Mephis walks out of the Sanctuary wearing Birthright Green. Hekatah's  
voice is soft, hesitant, but clear when she acknowledges Saetan's paternal rights.

Not long after that, she tries to persuade Saetan to give her another chance. She still hopes for  
a daughter, preferably the Queen that she'll never be.  
This time, Saetan refuses outright. 

He doesn't know if the grief will ever ease enough for him to risk fathering another child...but if he  
ever does, Hekatah will not be the mother. That is one decision he's made irrevocably.

* * *  
Peyton's old enough now to ride a horse rather than a pony. It gives Saetan a jolt when he  
realizes his younger son is taller than him, now.  
Mephis has taken a year-long contract with one of the Dhemlan queens, as a Second  
Circle Escort. Saetan misses him, but he's fiercely proud of both of his sons.  
Peyton has soaked up battle training from both Andulvar and Saetan. He seems likely  
to become some Queen's Master of the Guard, someday. Sharp reflexes and sharp  
wits. 

Yet for all his quickness, it's Mephis, not Peyton, who's first to find the lady who has  
a claim on his heart as well as his honor.

Lucinda is from Chaillot. She's a Healer; a young woman with a confident step and  
kind, dark blue eyes. Saetan can see the joy in her face when Mephis and she  
are together.  
She doesn't flinch from greeting the High Lord of Hell--or her beloved's father.  
Saetan's opinion of her goes up a notch at realizing that. 

They don't wed, formally, but there's a suite at the Hall set aside for her, and  
she rarely spends her nights in it alone.  
When she conceives a child, Mephis is speechless with happiness and concern  
and a hundred other emotions, all at once. It takes half a day before he's able to  
speak coherently, much to his father's and brother's amusement. 

Hekatah, when hearing the news that she's about to become a grandmother,  
is less than thrilled. She tries to pressure Lucinda into leaving Mephis, or Mephis  
into setting the woman aside for a more "suitable" marriage.

When that fails...

Lucinda goes into labor. It continues for over a day, and she's in so much pain...   
The Healer attending her can't explain it, but there's a grim set to   
the old woman's mouth that makes Saetan and Mephis look at each other, worried.


End file.
